The Chiropteran Mystery
by fallen-like-an-angel
Summary: AU When Rookie Cop Stephanie Brown joined the GCPD, the last thing she expected was to become part of a specialist unit that deals with unusual cases. But now that she's there she might as well get stuck into their latest case. Because Captain Grayson has big plans for his team; they're going to take down Gotham's most notorious serial killer. They're going to take down The Batman.
1. Chapter 1

**Hello, all! I'm back with a brand new story that I have extremely high hopes for. This is an AU where the Bat-Siblings are part of the Gotham City Police Department (the GCPD). I won't say much more than that because it will give things away. Obviously, because this is an AU the character back-stories will be a little different but I have tried to keep their personalities as similar as possible. Most character back-stories will be clarified as the story progresses, so if you want to know something about one of the characters give it some time and it should come up at some point. **

**I think that's everything I need to say. I will try and update as regularly as possible, but I have school and stuff so I won't make any promises. **

**Anyway, I hope you enjoy reading this and I would love it if you left a review because I'd love to know what you thought about it. **

**Thank you.**

**Chapter One**

Monday mornings at the GCPD were always quiet. The usual perpetrators were too busy nursing their hangovers from their weekends to cause any trouble and all the street kids were, reluctantly, back in school. The officers that were on patrol usually left earlier than necessary to soak up as much of peaceful Gotham as possible, while the officers unlucky enough to be on desk duty took advantage of the quiet to catch up on all their paperwork.

On an average Monday morning, Sergeant Cassandra Cain would be buzzing for some action. As a transfer officer from Hong Kong (and the only liaison officer for eastern allies in the GCPD) Cass wasn't used to the dull moments of the job and often found herself with nothing to do. Even after three years working in Gotham, she was still too used to long hours, endless paperwork and a crowded station. But today she was surprisingly thankful for the empty corridors as she walked the GCPD's latest employee and now Rookie cop, Stephanie Brown, through the station.

"Are you excited about becoming a cop?" Cass asked as they walked past the main desk. Her thick Hong Kong accent mixed with the light Gotham tone that she had picked up.

"Hell, yeah!" Stephanie replied, grinning madly. "It's taken me almost a whole year to get a place here. There's no way I couldn't be excited!"

Cass smiled. Having a partner was something new to her. The Commissioner had called her to his office three weeks prior to ask if she was willing to take on a partner and although she had never considered it before – having worked just fine by herself in Hong Kong and in Gotham – Cass had agreed on one condition: that her partner must be enthusiastic about the job. Gotham already had enough gloom in her streets and she refused to work with anyone who was just going to add to that. The Commissioner had sighed, knowing that it would be difficult to find someone that fit those parameters in Gotham, but agreed and, as far as Cass was concerned, he had picked the best officer for the job.

"I'm glad you are happy," Cass said, resting her hand on Steph's shoulder and bringing them to a stop, "but you must be aware that Gotham is not a forgiving place. Life here will not be easy for you and there will be situation where…"

"Don't worry about it, Boss." Steph cut in. Cass raised her eyebrows. "I've had this conversation with every teacher in the Academy. I can be a bit bubbly at times, but trust me; I know how to be serious when the time comes."

Cass nodded. "I read their reports on you." She had spent an entire night reading through Steph's report sheets. The teachers at the Academy had very high hopes for her. Each one had noted her high-spirited persona, but none of them had listed it as a fault. Instead they said that it was something that wasn't seen often in Gotham and that, even though she was chatty and responded almost too well to others in class, she always kept a level head and serious expression when completing scenario training. "But Gotham is not a…great place to be in; especially for an officer of the law. You will have to careful."

"It'll be okay. I grew up in Gotham so I'm expecting nothing but the worst from this job." Steph's eyes widened. "Um, that came out wrong."

"It's okay. I understand what you are trying to say." Cass smiled. She tugged Steph's arm lightly to get her to begin walking again. "Are you ready to meet the team?"

"Team?" Steph asked.

"Yes. Last year the Captain placed a special request to form a small team within the GCPD to tackle specific cases. The Commissioner was reluctant at first, but he gave the Captain the benefit of the doubt and has not regretted it. The Captain hand picks every member himself." Cass explained.

"Then why am I meeting them?"

"Because he hand picked you." Cass stopped in front of an officer door. A frosted glass window prevented them from seeing what was inside, but painted upon it in large blue letters was 'Captain Grayson: Specialist Division'.

Steph was suddenly nervous. No-one had told her anything about joining a specialist unit. "I, um, I don't understand."

"I will let the Captain explain everything to you. It will be easier that way." She opened the office door and stood aside to let Steph walk through first.

Inside, the office looked less like a police station office and more like a home office. A large desk sat in the middle of the room, scattered with bits of loose paper and empty coffee mugs. A sleek, flat screen computer sat amongst them; the keyboard lying in front of it and the mouse hanging off the edge. Two soft, leather sofas had been positioned either side of the room and behind one was a bookcase full of books and folders. A plain blue carpet adorned the wooden floor and three floor to ceiling windows gave a beautiful view of Gotham Park. Steph was so astounded by the office that it wasn't until a loud cough made her jump that she realised there were other people already in the room.

Sat in the desk chair, with his feet propped on top of the desk – threateningly close to a stack of papers – was a black haired man, with lightly tanned skin and warm, ocean coloured eyes. He smiled kindly and waved his arms in the air like a child showing off all their toys.

"Welcome to the club house. You must be Steph. I'm Captain Grayson, but you can call me Dick." He grinned as Steph did a double take.

"Dick?" She asked cautiously.

"It's short for Richard. Don't worry; everyone has that reaction to my name." He pulled his feet off the desk smoothly and stood up. He reached his arm across to Steph and shook her hand. "Let me introduce everyone and we can get down to business."

"Just get on with it, Grayson." One of the others said from the sofa. He wasn't wearing a police uniform like Dick, Steph and Cass were. Instead, he was wearing a dark leather jacket with a t-shirt that was so thin his muscles could be easily seen through the material. He had sharp, blue-grey eyes and hair that was even blacker than Dick's. But what held Steph's attention was the streak of white hair that fell across the right side of his forehead. It stood out like a white beacon in the middle of a black sea.

"Don't stare. I'll explain later." Cass whispered in her ear and Steph immediately snapped her gaze back to Dick. Luckily, Jason and Dick seemed to be glaring at each other and neither noticed.

"This is Jason Todd." Dick said, waving a hand in his direction. "He's an ex-private detective that the Commissioner hired in order to help with a few of our cases a while back. He hasn't left since." Jason gave a grunt in response. The smaller man, who was sitting next to him on the sofa whacked him on the arm.

"Be nice." He said and smiled shyly at Steph. Like Jason, he wasn't wearing a police uniform, but unlike Jason he was wearing a simple hoody and jeans combo. He also had black hair and blue eyes, but his eyes were like bright sapphires that shone no matter where he looked.

"Fine, hi, whatever." Jason said, finally looking at Steph. He smirked at her, which Steph presumed was his way of smiling and smiled back.

"And this is Tim." Dick continued, gesturing to the smaller man. "He's one of our best technical specialists. Our best technical specialist isn't part of this team. She's the GCPD's head technician, so she looks after everyone else. I'll introduce you to her at some point."

"Dickie's got a crush on her, but her Dad's the Commissioner so he knows he can't bang that. OW!" Jason yelled as Tim pinched him and Dick kicked his shin. "Fucking bullies."

"Okay, well," Dick continued as if he hadn't just attacked his team mate, "you already know Cass and Damian's at school, so I can't introduce you to him." At Steph's confused look he elaborated. "Oh, he's my little brother. He works here sometimes as our coffee boy."

"Coffee boy?" Steph asked.

"Yeah, he goes and gets us coffee when we want it." Dick smiled sheepishly and shrugged. "I work a lot and he doesn't like being left at home alone for long periods of time so I got him a part-time job here. You'll meet him eventually."

"Can we get down to business now? Don't know about you but I've got other things to be working on." Jason leant back in the couch and wrapped his arm around Tim, pulling the younger man back with him. Although Steph was slightly startled at the intimacy that the two men obviously shared, she pushed the thought aside and turned to face Dick.

"Look, um, this is going a little fast for me. Up until about five minutes ago I thought I was here for a quick look around before I started patrol as a Rookie officer tomorrow morning. Now you're telling me I've got even more work to do?"

Dick raised his eyebrows. "The Commissioner didn't tell you anything?"

"The Commissioner," Cass said helpfully as Steph still struggled to process what was going on, "said that it was your team so you had to explain everything."

Dick sighed and rubbed a hand down his face. His friendly appearance had disappeared and was replaced with a serious one. He rested his palms against the desk, pressing down with his upper body weight, and stared straight at Steph. "Have you ever heard of the Batman?"


	2. Chapter 2

**Okay, so this is Chapter Two. It's written and posted sooner than I thought. Schools been quite slow recently, so I've taken the peace as a chance to get on with some much needed writing. **

**This chapter is a little slow and I'm not too sure if I'm happy with it or not, so please review so I know if it's still good to read. And thanks to everyone who reviewed the first chapter. I'm glad you enjoyed it.**

* * *

**Chapter Two:**

"The Batman?" Steph asked incredulously. "What kind of question is that? Everyone this side of America has heard of him."

"That's good," Dick said nodding, "but what do you know about him?"

Steph frowned. She glanced at the others, who were staring at her intently, waiting for her response. She suddenly felt like she was being put on the spot. "Um, he's Gotham's worst serial killer since the Joker. Nobody knows exactly who he is, or even if it is a he, or even if it is just one person. The Gotham Gazette came up with the name Batman and I guess it just stuck. Now everyone calls him that…her that…_it_ that?" Steph turned back to Dick. "That's all I know."

"Dick sighed. "Well, it's a start."

"You can't expect her to know everything, Dick." Tim said. "The GCPD's done a good job of keeping everything undisclosed."

"Small words, Timmy." Jason reprimanded softly, poking Tim in the ribs. Tim blushed and swatted Jason's arm playfully. The older man just grinned.

Steph stared at them both; her brain trying to figure out what is was about them that she kept stumbling on. She must have been staring two seconds too long though as Jason looked up at her, the prefect picture of innocence. "Yes?" He asked, as if daring her to speak her mind.

"Nothing." Steph flustered, turning back to Dick and straightening her thoughts. "So, is this what you do? Is this what the team was created for? To catch the Batman?"

"No," Dick said, shaking his head, "when I first put forward the idea to form a team I wanted to be able to deal with things that the rest of the force would have trouble with. I thought it would make life in Gotham for the GCPD a lot easier if there was a specific group that could deal with the weird and whacky while they dealt with the usual stuff. But the head office has been putting a lot of pressure on the Commissioner to bring the Batman in and he decided to assign the case to us."

"Well, that's great!" Steph said, nodding enthusiastically. "Having a little team to remove that scumbag from Gotham streets? I'm all for it. But why do you want me to be part of it? I'm just a Rookie."

"Pure chance." Cass stated from beside her. "I was offered a partner and I offered my partner to the Captain as a new member for this team."

"Well, thanks," Steph mumbled, feeling slightly defeated, "but do I even get a choice in this?"

"Of course!" Dick said, moving around the desk to stand in front of her. "You can back out anytime you want. Even if you join us now and decide in a week or a months time that you want out then you're free to leave. You'll be a regular Rookie and Cass will still be your partner, but…" He looked around the room and spread his arms out wide, "this is all that this team is. I read your file. You're going to be a great cop, a fantastic one, and this team could really use the help."

Steph sighed. Dick definitely wasn't wrong on that last part. So far this Batman hunting team comprised of two actual police officers, one ex-detective, a computer nerd and a child who got them coffee. They were going to need all the help that they could get. She couldn't turn them down now that they had asked her. "Alright, I'll help. But you're going to have to give me everything that you know about the Batman or I'm going to be so far behind that I'll be no help at all."

"That's great!" Dick smiled; all pearly teeth and crinkled eyes. He stepped forward and wrapped his arms around Steph, pulling her into a strong hug. Cass coughed loudly and Dick immediately let go, stepping back a foot. "Sorry." He apologised, smiling cheekily as Cass shook her head and Jason and Tim sniggered.

"Don't worry about it." Steph said as she straightened her uniform where it had crinkled.

"The Captain likes to hug people." Jason explained. "Cass it trying to train him out of it, but it isn't working too well."

Dick ignored Jason in favour of walking to the bookcase. He bent down and retrieved a box full of case files. He placed it on the desk, balancing it on top of several other case files and a picture frame. "These are all the case files that the GCPD has got concerning the Batman. There's about seven years worth here, but the Batman appeared in Gotham ten years ago so I've got a couple of people looking for the missing files on his very first murders."

"For seven years worth there doesn't seem to be very much." Steph noted. "And even with the missing case files, are you sure you have enough evidence to catch him?"

"Hey, have some faith. We were only given this case a couple of weeks ago."

"Look, " Jason yawned, standing up and stretching, "we've done introductions, we've got a newbie for the team, now why don't we all go our separate ways and let Steph look over those case files. We can meet up again on Thursday evening and do a couple of brainstorms." He held a hand out to Tim who gratefully took it and pulled himself up. "That sound like a plan?"

"Alright." Dick said, moving to sit in his desk chair. "I'll make a couple of calls and see if we can speed things along in finding those missing cases."

Jason walked over to the desk and picked up the box of case files, shifting them in his arms so that he had a more secure grip. "Come on; I'll take this down to your car for you."

* * *

Although Steph had planned on celebrating getting her new job with a bottle of champagne, lots of chocolate and a night in front of the TV, she actually found herself sprawled out on her living room floor amongst a mass of case files. She sighed as she stretched to pick up her third file and slowly opened the front page. The first two had been…unpleasant to read through. Steph had known that the Batman had a serious reputation for mutilating and torturing his victims but she had never actually seen an image of what he had done. Several times she had to resist the urge to throw up as she sifted through evidence photos. There was no point in trying to take the easy way out now. Soon she'd have to see these murders first hand and she didn't want to seem like she couldn't handle it in front of the others.

A light knocking from her front door had Steph silently singing praises at the distraction. She chucked the folder down and made her way through the hallway to the front door. When she opened it she was surprised to see Tim waiting outside.

"Hi." He greeted shyly, dancing from foot to foot as if he wasn't sure whether he should have come by or not.

"Hey." Steph greeted back, not sure what else to say.

"Um, I hope I'm not being too rude by coming here. I found your address on the database and, well, Jason is out of town for the night, so I was home alone and thought that maybe you might want a hand with those case files? I know some of them aren't very nice and lots of the facts can be confusing, so I could clarify things for you. If not, then I'll leave you to it."

"No, that'd be great. Come on in." Steph stepped aside and let Tim pass through.

"Nice place. No way could you afford this on a Rookie's salary, though." Tim smiled at her before realising what he had just said and dropping his gaze. "Sorry. God, that was so rude of me. Forget I said it."

"That's okay." Steph said, placing a hand on Tim's shoulder to get him to look back up. She smiled at the slight blush that had spread down his neck. "This is actually my Mum's house. She's on holiday in England with some friends and let me crash here until I find a place of my own." Steph paused. "Can I ask you something? It's a little personal, but it's been bugging me all day."

"Sure." Tim nodded, following Steph as she walked back into the living room. "What do you want to know?"

"You and Jason; are you…?"

"Gay?" Tim added in helpfully.

"Actually I was going to say dating, but I guess that kind of answers my question too."

Tim laughed; all light and breathy. "Well, yeah, Jason and I are a thing. We're engaged." He lifted his left hand and showed Steph the gold band that wrapped around his ring finger.

"Oh, wow!" Steph said, taking his hand to get a better look and bouncing on the balls of her feet. "Congratulations!"

"Thanks." Tim retracted his hand and looked down at the papers scattered across the floor. "How far have you got?"

Steph sighed. "Just finished reading about the Mackenzie Murder."

Tim grimaced. "That was a really gruesome one. I still think about it sometimes."

"You were there?" Steph asked, pulling him over to the sofa so they could sit down.

"Yeah, it was my first case with the GCPD. They called me in to look at what some officer thought was a coded message on the wall by the body. Turned out to be nothing but scribble from rival gangs in downtown Gotham." Tim picked up the file and began to flick through it. "None of what I did was ever written up, though. The officer in charge thought that because it had nothing to do with the case it was a waste of time writing it in. That was back when the corruption within the GCPD was still high."

"Why did you decide to work at the GCPD then?"

"I didn't really have much of a choice. I've always been good at computers and when my family's company crashed and was taken over by Wayne Industries I had no where left to go when I left school; so I thought I'd try and help people out by working with the police force." Tim explained.

"Wait, your family's company?"

"Drake Industries." Tim smiled.

"Drake…oh, so your Tim Drake?" Steph said, the realisation dawning on her.

"The one and only."

"God, I'm so sorry about your parents. I read what happened in the newspaper." Steph winced. Tim's face fell from smiling to stone cold. Maybe she shouldn't have brought that up.

"Thanks, but I don't like talking about it."

"No, of course not. So, um, case files?"


End file.
